Adrian Covert

The latest innovation in antibacterial drugs have moved past killing harmful cells. Instead, they just deactivate the parts of the cell that cause problems in the human body. It's kinda like taking a gun away from someone instead of shooting them first.

Developed by researchers at UCLA and the Geffen School of Medicine, the LpxC-1 antibiotic was developed to fight the drug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (pictured above), which commonly attacks hospital patients with open wounds or incisions. By turning off the toxins responsible for inflammation, the drug effectively neutralizes the cells without having to kill them off completely.

Of course, this has only been tested in mice so far, but if successful in humans, this could be huge in countries where public health standards are low and bacteria run rampant. [ScienceBlog]